500,000 new homes by 2040 unrealistic

10th March 2009, 0 comments

Minister Jacqueline Cramer (Vrom) was alone in supposing the Randstad needs 500,000 new homes by 2040.

THE HAGUE—A majority of the House of Representatives (Tweede Kamer) found a half million new homes in the Randstad by 2040 an unrealistic goal. They debated the issue Tuesday with Housing and Social Affairs Minister Jacqueline Cramer (Vrom, PvdA/Labour).

The cabinet presented its goals for the housing market last September, entitled Structural Vision 2040. The report calls for a half million new homes in the Ranstad, including 200,000 in the larger cities, many of them high rises. Almere is to be expanded by 60,000 homes, according to the plan. The cabinet would like to form a coordinated vision with the cities and provinces on development in the Randstad.

The political parties supported the plan generally, but were opposed to the number of houses it called for. House member Roos Vermeij (PvdA) said: “I’m all for lots of building, but it has to be realistic.” The VVD (liberal party) worried that too many high rises would be built. “Most people don’t want to live in them. They’d rather live in family homes.”

CDA (Christian Democrats) house member Mirjam Sterk asked Minister Cramer if “500,000 houses wasn’t too dogmatic a goal. We don’t need to build all sorts of structures that we’ll later regret.” Sterk would rather that small cities within the Randstad take over a part of the building project. She’s also in favour of construction in other parts of the Netherlands.

According to Minister Cramer a “large number of homes” need to be build up until 2040. “That’s perfectly clear. The prognosis is now 500,000 homes, but it can also be 400,000, or 600,000.”